Steady Deluge Breaks 1871 Rainfall Record

August 19, 1989|By TINA McCLOUD Staff Writer

Millponds overflowed, cars stalled, power went out in fits and starts, and it rained and rained and rained.

Starting around 9 Friday morning and for about five more hours, the water rose as fast as it fell. Rain gauges from Gloucester Court House to southern Mathews County trapped 6-6 1/2 inches during the deluge. The rain had nowhere to go but up. The ground had already turned to bog this month, and rising tides made drainage slower.

With hurricane-like intensity Thursday night and Friday morning, the thunderstorms also dumped 12 inches of rain on Yorktown, 11.3 on Williamsburg, 6 inches or more on Toano and between 3 and 5 inches on parts of Newport News and Hampton.

"Usually you would expect this type of rain with a hurricane," said Dewey Walston, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Norfolk. "This is just phenomenal."

Friday's rain was caused by a "very small, intense low pressure system," he said. Today's forecast calls for a good chance of more thunderstorms.

The rainfall measured by the National Park Service at Yorktown beat a Norfolk record set in 1871, when 11.4 inches fell in 24 hours, Walston said.

Normal rainfall for all of August is RainA1^5.33 inches.

In Gloucester County, sheriff's department personnel, highway workers and volunteer firefighters helped with traffic control, blocking roads so more cars wouldn't plunge through. Problems were especially bad on a section of Route 17 in the White Marsh and Ordinary areas, Route 614 at Haynes Mill Pond near White Marsh, and routes 628 and 629 at Robins Mill Pond near Roanes, said Sheriff Robin P. Stanaway.

In front of Calvary Baptist Church in Ordinary, "the water was up to my belt," said Abingdon Volunteer Fire Chief Herbert M. Austin. At least 12 cars had stalled out before the traffic was diverted into other lanes of the road.

He said the road crew was sustained by a free load of hamburgers, cokes and coffee sent over by the local McDonald's.

Stanaway said the guard rail of the bridge at Haynes Mill Pond was washed out. The bridge looked sound but there was some erosion under the road, he said. Several people said the old mill, already in a state of disrepair, had collapsed further.

Water at Robins Mill Pond "was overlowing from every place it could," said Nelson Jarvis, a forester and volunteer firefighter. At one point about a foot of water flowed across Route 628 at a good clip, he said.

He and another volunteer, Stephen Field, walked over to look at the dam and encountered a frantic possum apparently trying to move her young out of the flood. Perhaps frightened by the water and the men, she dropped three of the babies. Field and Jarvis each picked up one and got close enough to drop them onto the mother's back, where they belonged. They moved another baby to high ground.

Authorities were aware of only one rain-related injury when the storm passed, although several traffic accidents were reported later in the day. Gloucester Fire Chief Andrew James Jr. said water rose in the parking lot of Gloucester High School and seeped into a hallway, where a woman slipped and hit her head. She was released after treatment, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The low-lying Guinea area in southern Gloucester, which usually floods during heavy weather, was spared, the sheriff said. Problems usually arise there when a nor'easter combines with high tide, but drainage didn't seem to be a significant worry Thursday.

In Mathews County, long-time store owner Bobby Diggs had never seen the likes of the water that rose through the day to cover Route 198 in front of his store in Hudgins.

"I've been here 42 years and there ain't been nothing like this. All you can see is water when you look out the front door." The water backed up from Stutts Creek behind his store. He had to use his tractor to tow a neighbor's car to high ground.

"It was up to the seats in water," he said.

Driving down Main Street, County Administrator Frank A. Pleva said, a truck coming the other direction "pulled a wake, and I could hear the waves banging against the doors of the car." Pleva and other county officials said other trouble spots included Route 626 at Foster and Port Haywood.

Virginia Power contended with lightning damage in the morning and falling trees and limbs in the afternoon, said spokesman Ronald Saunders. About 3,000 customers in the two counties were without power at some point during the day, but outages were so scattered that it was impossible to pinpoint the worst areas.

The Newport News Department of Public Works had received more than 100 telephone calls regarding flooding by 3 p.m. Friday, said Reed Fowler, assistant administrator of the wastewater division.

In Hampton, numerous streets were flooded in the Buckroe, Harris Creek and Northampton sections of the city, said Public Works Director Ed Panzer.

The flooding was caused not only by the heavy rains, but the rising tide during the morning.